1) New TNI battalions in Papua will create more conflicts, rights abuses: Observer
Tempo – October 3, 2024
Hendrik Khoirul Muhid, Jakarta – Military observer and lecturer at the Brawijaya University Faculty of Law, Al Araf, believes that the formation of new Conflict Area Support (PDR) infantry battalions (Yonif) in five regions of Papua reflects the government's position of considering Papua a conflict prone region.
"The (government's) approach still prioritises additional security", he said when contacted on Wednesday October 2
Al Araf admitted he was surprised at the government's attitude of still using a security approach in the Papua region by deploying additional troops. Yet this pattern of using a security approach has been proven to have failed when applied during the era of reformasi– the political reform process that began in 1998.
"This (security approach) actually does not answer the problems [in Papua]", he said.
The formation of these new battalions, he said, also has the potential to create violence and human rights violations in Papua. The long-term policy is oriented towards increasing military defence forces by adding troops and battalions.
"What is feared is that this dynamic will not solve the problem, but it will instead give rise to the problem of serious conflicts in Papua", he said.
The Indonesian Military (TNI) has officially formed five new units in Papua to support security and development in vulnerable areas.
"The purpose of forming these battalions is for support in these areas", said TNI Commander General Agus Subiyanto at the Silang Field at the National Monument (Monas) in Jakarta on Wednesday October 2.
Subiyanto said that the new battalions were formed to assist government programs in the Papua region, primarily in development activities and regional acceleration, and improve the welfare of the Papuan people.
According to Subiyanto, the new battalions are difference from other units. The new battalions have two specific tasks, namely construction and production.
"These battalions have more specific duties and roles, including supporting food security, handling security threats, and encouraging community development", Subiyanto said.
Related to the task of production, the new battalions will carry out agricultural programs in the Papua region. The battalion's role in this production will be to cooperate with the Ministry of Agriculture and local communities to plant food commodities.
The following is a list of the new Conflict Area Support battalions:
1. Duga Adiyatama Yudha Infantry Battalion 801, the first and foremost worriers in meeting the enemy. The battalion is to be located in Kerom regency, Papua.
2. Wimanimambejaya Infantry Battalion 802, powerful worriers who are always triumphant. The unit is to be located in Sarmi regency, Papua.
3. Kesatria Yudha Kensuwiri Infantry Battalion 803, worriers that build. To be located in Boven Digoel regency, South Papua.
4. Dharma Bakti Asasta Yudha Infantry Battalion 804, a unit that serves the welfare of the people in battle. The battalion is to be located in Merauke regency, South Papua.
5. Kesatria Satia Waninggap Infantry Battalion 805, faithful worriers defending the truth. The unit is to be located in Sorong regency, Southwest Papua.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Pengamat Sebut Pembentukan 5 Yonif Baru di Papua Berpotensi Ciptakan Kekerasan dan Praktik Pelanggaran HAM".]
2) South Papua seeks to improve relations with PNG
October 5, 2024 17:35 GMT+700
Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA) - The South Papua provincial government sought to enhance its relationship with Papua New Guinea (PNG) by discussing various problems in the border areas.
In a press release received here on Saturday, the province's secretariat assistant, Joko Guritno, said that the free open access along the Indonesia-PNG border in South Papua's Sota Sub-district has raised some concerns.
"We hope that the security forces in the border area can take advantage of the Yetetkun State Cross-Border Post (PLBN) in Ninati Sub-district to record every person who crosses (the border)," he added.
Meanwhile, business activities carried out by local communities at another PLBN located in Sota, Merauke District, could improve the local economy if developed well, he pointed out.
"We need to regulate that well with the PNG government," Guritno said.
The consul at the Indonesian Consulate in Vanimo, Tangkuman Alexander, said that his side also considers it necessary to improve relations between South Papua and PNG so that border issues can be handled well.
"We hope that with the cooperation between Indonesia and PNG, the people's economy in the border areas can improve," he added.
On September 30, 2024, South Papua provincial government and PNG government representatives visited Merauke district to check and handle the problems in the border area.
PNG Consul for Indonesia Geoffrey L. Wiri DMS said that there are three new areas in Indonesia that directly border PNG, one of which is Merauke.
"We made a visit to South Papua with the aim of verifying residents who are working at PT Papua Agro Lestari, which operates in Kumaaf-Ulilin, Merauke," he informed.
The visit also paid attention to children who are attending school in Sota Sub-district, he added.
3) West Papua continues to educate public to realize peaceful Pilkada
October 5, 2024 17:16 GMT+700
Manokwari, West Papua (ANTARA) - The West Papua provincial government stated that it continues to educate people on the implementation of the 2024 Regional Head Election (Pilkada).
Acting Governor of West Papua Ali Baham Temongmere explained here on Saturday that the provincial government has held several activities to support the smooth running of Pilkada.
Education regarding Pilkada is provided to the public to ensure safe, peaceful, orderly, and quality implementation in seven districts.
These activities include campaigning for peaceful Pilkada by involving the community, customary and religious leaders, as well as regional head candidates and political parties.
"The local government has disseminated information and conducted educational activities, including holding a march for peaceful Pilkada," Temongmere stated.
In addition, he said, the provincial government has allocated a grant worth Rp82.5 billion USD1 = around Rp15,670) for securing the implementation of 2024 Pilkada in West Papua.
In detail, Rp75 billion of the grant is distributed to the province's police while the remaining Rp7.5 billion is for the district military command.
The grant support aims to maximize security operations, including educational campaigns conducted by the Indonesian Military-National Police (TNI-Polri) in the West Papua region.
"Once again, I invite all components (of society) to be active in preventing provocative efforts that have the potential to disrupt public security and order during the election," Temongmere stated.
Moreover, the provincial government continues coordinating with the General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) to optimize Pilkada supervision from the campaign period until the voting day on November 27, 2024.
The acting governor also reminded all civil servants in the region to maintain neutrality during Pilkada.
Past failures can’t stop Indonesia from clearing forests, Indigenous lands for farms
HANS NICHOLAS JONG
3 OCT 2024 ASIA
The Indonesian government is embarking on yet another project to establish a massive area of farmland at the expense of forests and Indigenous lands, despite a long history of near-identical failures.
The latest megaproject calls for clearing 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) in the district of Merauke in the eastern region of Papua for rice fields.
Local Indigenous communities say they weren’t consulted about the project, and say the heavy military presence on the ground appears to be aimed at silencing their protests.
Similar megaprojects, on Borneo and more recently also in Merauke, all failed, leaving behind destroyed landscapes, with the current project also looking “assured to fail,” according to an agricultural researcher.
JAKARTA — Indigenous Papuans say they’ve been caught off guard by helicopters flying over their villages and excavators tearing down their forests in their area, all while accompanied by the Indonesian military.
What they’re being subjected to is one of the largest deforestation projects in the world, which will see the development of 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of rice fields in Merauke, a district in Indonesia’s Papua region that borders Papua New Guinea.
The military is involved in the project because it’s led by the Ministry of Defense and has been designated a project of national strategic importance. Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, who will be sworn in as Indonesia’s next president on Oct. 20, has appointed the hugely controversial Jhonlin Group to help administer the project.
The military’s involvement, coupled with the lack of free, prior, informed consent (FPIC) from Indigenous communities living in the area, have fueled concerns that the project will create new conflicts in the region.
Indonesia has maintained a heavy military presence in the Papua region since annexing it in 1963, with security forces frequently accused of committing human rights violations under the justification of cracking down on a low-level independence movement.
‘A war zone’
In the early months of the rice project, Indigenous Papuans living in the project area had already begun protesting, saying they were never properly informed or consulted with.
“Without [us] knowing, backhoes have already entered our villages,” said Yasinta Moiwend, an Indigenous woman from Ilwayab subdistrict in Merauke.
This lack of consultation has created confusion among the villagers, according to Pius Manu, a local priest who lives in a village across from the area earmarked for the rice project. He cited the recent arrival of a large barge in Ilwayab, carrying in dozens of excavators. There have also been helicopters crisscrossing the skies over their villages, ferrying experts to collect soil samples, Pius said.
“They did so without asking for permission from the villagers,” he said. “So people started to become suspicious and afraid because of the helicopters flying freely. Shortly after that, in came the military.”
The presence of the military in the villages further spooked the Indigenous inhabitants, Pius said.
“The people could do nothing because the company [Jhonlin] came with armed [military] forces,” he said. “Without the military, there’s no way the company could enter the villages and people’s lands as they please.”
Pius said he expected increasing military presence in the region as there’s a plan to deploy five battalions, with one battalion usually consisting of 1,000 soldiers, to the project site.
On Oct. 2, the National Military commander, Agus Subiyanto, inaugurated the formation of the five battalions.
“The five battalions in five regions in Papua will work together with the Ministry of Agriculture and local communities to plant the main food commodities, including rice,” Agus said as quoted by local media.
Under the outgoing president, Joko Widodo, the military has enjoyed a return to non-defense activities, such as agriculture. Observers and historians say this marks a severe regression toward the past militaristic tendencies of the late authoritarian president Suharto, who ruled from 1966 to 1998. Under the Suharto regime, known as the New Order, the military had a “dual function” that allowed it to get involved in civilian affairs.
“This means the New Order era is coming back,” Pius said. “This might even be scarier than the New Order. The villages [in the project site] only have around 3,000 people. It means there’s going to be more soldiers than villagers. What does the government want to create there? A war zone?”
With the presence of armed soldiers, it will be impossible for the villagers to live in peace on their own land, he said.
“If the soldiers stay in their barracks, there might not be a problem. But if they’re already in the middle of the people, [the villagers] will no longer feel free, especially once they see weapons,” Pius said. “It’s like a war zone.”
Food insecurity
The rice project marks a shift in the government’s focus from developing large-scale agricultural plantations in the country’s west, particularly the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, to the east. A previous attempt under Suharto to establish a million hectares of rice plantations in Borneo had failed. Under Widodo, similar attempts at creating a “food estate” there also flopped.
The government says the Merauke project is necessary for Indonesia’s food security in the face of climate change impacts that are driving weather unpredictability and affecting crop yields. In recent years, the wet season has started late, delaying sowing. And when it does start, rainfall patterns are erratic.
In 2023, El Niño brought a prolonged dry season, resulting in many cases of rice harvest failure.
Furthermore, rice fields across Indonesia are being lost to housing estates, industrial parks and infrastructure projects. Each year, the country loses an average of 100,000 hectares (nearly 250,000 acres) of rice fields. The total harvested area in 2023 was 10.2 million hectares (25.2 million acres), about 250,000 hectares (618,000 acres) or 2.45% smaller than in 2022, official data show.
This is a cause of concern as Indonesia is highly dependent on rice. The grain is the staple food across the country, with Indonesians consuming 35.8 million metric tons annually, or about 124 kilograms (273 pounds) per person.
“That’s why we have to innovate by making new programs,” said Ahmad Rizal Ramdhani, the military general who heads the government task force overseeing the Merauke rice project. “One of them is the 1-million-hectare rice field project.”
If both projects progress as planned, a total of 3 million hectares (7.5 million acres), or more than half of Merauke’s total land area, will be transformed into agricultural plantations.
In a feasibility study into the rice project, Jakarta-based consultancy Sucofindo identified 2.3 million hectares (5.7 million acres) of land in Merauke that could be converted into rice fields.
A spatial analysis by conservation NGO the Nusantara Foundation found that the targeted areas comprised mostly secondary swamp forests, swamp thickets, and savanna. These ecosystems and the biodiversity they host risk disappearing if the rice project moves ahead, said Amanda Hurowitz, senior director of forest commodities at U.S.-based campaign group Mighty Earth.
“Papua is Indonesia’s last great frontier, with vast swaths of pristine forest still untouched,” she told Mongabay. “It cannot become the new agricultural frontier with the destruction of nature that brings.”
The rice project also threatens Indigenous peoples and their rights to their ancestral lands, according to Pusaka, an NGO that advocates for the rights of Indigenous Papuans. Pusaka estimates that more than 50,000 Indigenous people will be affected by the project.
Among them is Yasinta in Ilwayab subdistrict, a member of the Moiwend clan that owns land covered by the project.
“Where should we look for food? There’s no more place for us to look for food, to send our kids to school,” Yasinta said during a recent visit to the area by the South Papua provincial governor.
Forest conversion
Some of the Indigenous communities live in forest areas that the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, in Jakarta, has permitted to be cleared for the rice project.
On July 12 this year, the environment ministry issued a decree allowing the Ministry of Defense to use 13,540 hectares (33,460 acres) of areas zoned as forest for agricultural purposes, according to Pusaka.
In the past, such a move would be illegal, as Indonesian law prohibits farming in forest areas unless the environment ministry issues what’s known as a forest conversion permit to strip the area of its forest zoning designation. But in 2020, the environment ministry issued a new regulation that exempted plantation operators from such a requirement if they plan to clear the forest area for “food security.”
The 13,540 hectares of forest area in question includes 94 hectares (232 acres) of protected forest and 9,256 hectares (22,872 acres) of land dedicated to sustainable forestry. The fact that they were designated as such in the first place indicates that these lands are of high ecological importance or significant to local communities, particularly Indigenous peoples.
Pusaka also identified sites deemed sacred to local communities and traditional hunting grounds in the area gifted by the environment ministry to the defense ministry for the rice project.
Promises (broken)
The presence of Indigenous peoples and their ancestral lands in the project site should have prompted the government to consult with the communities in Merauke before deciding to locate the project there, said Pusaka director Franky Samperante.
“The people should receive information regarding the project which will be carried out in their ancestral lands and given freedom to negotiate and make a decision on whether to accept or reject the project,” he said. “The government and the company [developing the project] didn’t do this.”
Rizal, the project lead, said Indigenous communities have nothing to worry about because the government will include them in the project. The government will also avoid clearing sacred sites when building infrastructure for the project, he added. And to mitigate environmental impact, the government will avoid clearing areas with high conservation values, such as those that are biodiversity hotspots, he said.
Despite these promises, however, at least one Indigenous community has reported the clearing of its sacred sites due to the project, according to Pusaka. This, Franky said, is a violation of the rights of Indigenous peoples, which should be protected under Indonesian law.
Clan protests
Yohanes Mahuse, the head of LMA, an organization that purports to speak for Indigenous communities in Ilwayab subdistrict, said the rice project won’t violate the rights of Indigenous peoples. Instead, it will benefit them, he said.
“The people [here] are no longer afraid or concerned about their lands being grabbed by companies,” Yohanes said as quoted by local media. “Especially ancestral land rights. They’re not going to be handed over [to companies]. They will still belong to the people.”
However, Pius said Yohanes doesn’t represent the Indigenous communities in Ilwayab because he comes from the Mahuse clan; the lands covered by the rice project belong to the Moiwend and Gebze clans.
Members of the latter two clans have staged a series of protests against the project, most recently on Sept. 24, when Apolo Safanso, the interim governor of South Papua province, visited Ilwayab subdistrict.
The protesters covered themselves in white mud as a display of their grief due to the rice project threating their land rights.
Infrastructure spree
To prepare for the project, the government will build infrastructure with the help of the Jhonlin Group, a company owned by influential Bornean tycoon Andi Syamsudin Arsyad, popularly known as Haji Isam.
Jhonlin, whose business interests range from palm oil to coal mining, has a track record of clearing rainforests and peatlands as well as being embroiled in numerous disputes with local communities over land, labor and human rights violations.
Isam himself is the cousin of Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman.
Jhonlin is tasked to build roads, irrigation canals and logistics facilities for the rice project, Rizal said. In June, the company ordered 2,000 excavators from China’s SANY Group, the world’s second-largest heavy equipment manufacturer. The deal is the biggest of its kind in the world, according to Isam.
“The state has given me this task [to carry out the rice project]. In my mind is how to make this 1-million-hectare rice project successful within three years, without worrying about the profit or the loss,” Isam said as quoted by local media.
As of August, 232 excavators had been shipped to Wanam, a village in Merauke at the heart of the project site. Among the infrastructure to be built are a logistics port on the coast and a road connecting it to Wanam 135 kilometers (84 miles) away, Rizal said.
The port and the road will facilitate the transport of farming equipment to Wanam, and, once harvests begin, rice heading the other way, he said. The government will also build irrigation canals along the road to feed the rice fields.
Satellite analysis by technology consultancy TheTreeMap indicates that land clearing for the logistic port has begun.
Before and after image of the area in Merauke where the port and the road for the rice project are being built. Image courtesy of TheTreeMap.
‘Failure assured’
Experts are split on whether this million-hectare rice project will succeed, unlike those before it. Lilik Sutiarso, an agricultural expert at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, on the island of Java, said he’s optimistic about the project, adding the landscape in Merauke is suitable for rice fields.
“The land there is vast and flat, with not many hills and valleys,” he said as quoted by local media. “Furthermore, I see that there’s enough water [to irrigate the rice fields].”
Dwi Andreas Santosa, an agricultural researcher at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), just south of Jakarta, said both the rice and sugarcane megaprojects are bound to repeat the failure of past food estate projects in the region.
In 2011, then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono initiated the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE), aimed at turning the district into the “future breadbasket of Indonesia” by establishing rice and sugarcane plantations — the same justifications being touted by government officials today.
The MIFEE project turned out to be a failure, used as cover to establish oil palm and pulpwood plantations instead. It became a “textbook land grab,” activists said: Under the guise of the project, companies acquired large swaths of Indigenous lands without the free, prior and informed consent of communities, and without providing adequate compensation.
More recently, the government tried to revive the food estate program by clearing land for cassava and rice farms in Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo Island. This despite experts warning the government that the project would fail since the swampy lands of Kalimantan aren’t suitable for large-scale agriculture, unlike Java where the soil is nourished by frequent volcanic eruptions.
The experts’ warning turned out to be true, with a field investigation finding that some of the food estates in Kalimantan had been abandoned; instead of food crops, wild shrubs were growing, the abandonment attributed to lack of proper planning.
Dradjad Wibowo, a politician from the National Mandate Party and member of president-elect Prabowo Subianto’s campaign team, acknowledged the shortcomings of the food estate project in Kalimantan. That’s why Prabowo decided to shift the program’s focus to Merauke, where the soil is more suitable for farming, he said.
“We realized we can’t rely on Kalimantan, and so we will develop [a food estate] in Merauke, because it has flat and vast lands,” Dradjad said as quoted by local news. “While there’s a lack of infrastructure there, it has very good agricultural [potential].”
Dwi from the agricultural institute said the government doesn’t seem to have learned from the long list of megaproject failures. The sheer size of the two currently being pursued in Merauke — for rice and for sugarcane — is one of the reasons why they’re bound to fail.
At a combined 3 million hectares, they eclipse the ambition of previous food estate projects, including MIFEE, which had a relatively modest scope of 1.2 million hectares (3 million acres) of agricultural fields in Merauke.
Dwi also said the landscape of Merauke, dominated by swamps, grasslands and savannas, isn’t fertile enough for agricultural purposes.
“Let’s say the types of crops [used] are suitable for the soil there. But what about the pests? How to control them?” he said as quoted by local media.
Dwi also questioned the availability of farmers in Merauke to work the land. He estimated the two projects would need a combined 2 million farmers at the very least, even if they’re aided by machines.
“[The government] wants to repeat the same mistake, so I can assure you [the project] will fail,” he said.
Cui bono?
Even if the rice project does turn out to be a success, it’s not clear how the Indigenous Papuans who have been stripped of their land for it will benefit: the government plans to export the rice to other countries, according to project lead Rizal.
“The concept of Merauke [rice project] is for export, not for domestic consumption, because we are targeting Pacific islands and Australia as market,” he said. The rationale? Shipping the rice to Jakarta for domestic consumption “will be more expensive,” whereas “it’s cheaper to export to the Pacific,” Rizal said.
Critics say this flies in the face of the government’s repeated claims that the project is about boosting Indonesia’s food security. The irony, they say, is that this is being carried out in Papua, a region where food scarcity is prevalent in some districts. In fact, the Papua region is the only one in Indonesia that the government categorizes as “very susceptible” to food insecurity, and is listed as the government’s top priority for improving food security.
Rizal said the project will ultimately improve the welfare of the people of Papua, which long has been one of the most underdeveloped regions in Indonesia. The region has the nation’s highest poverty rate, with more than 28% of its residents living below the poverty line, more than triple the national average.
“We are ordered [by the central government] to improve the economy, the health and the education of people in remote areas through agriculture,” Rizal said. “Our brothers and sisters in Wanam rarely receive attention from the government.”
Regardless of whether the rice ends up being exported or eaten domestically, the project is still at odds with the Indonesian government’s commitment to combat climate change, said Mighty Earth’s Hurowitz.
“Indonesia says climate change is driving food insecurity, but razing forests to grow crops further fuels global heating through deforestation,” she said. “The outgoing President Jokowi recently admitted that the food estate project has been tried many times before with no success. In a climate and nature emergency this venture makes no sense and calls into question Indonesia’s climate commitments, while canceling out the progress it’s made in driving down commodity-driven deforestation.”
Banner image: An excavator clearing land to make way for rice paddy in Merauke. Image courtesy of Pusaka.
1) TNI raises five battalions for Papua food resilience program
October 2, 2024 20:00 GMT+700
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) General Agus Subiyanto on Wednesday inaugurated five infantry battalions (Yonif) to support the government's food resilience program in Papua region.
The battalions will be dispatched to five regions of Papua to collaborate with the Agriculture Ministry and local residents to cultivate essential crops, including rice, he said.
"These battalions are specialized in different aspects, such as construction and production. We will carry out agricultural programs in Papua with their help," he told journalists after the inauguration in the National Monument (Monas) area, Central Jakarta.
The battalions include Yonif 801/Ksatria Yuddha Kentswuri, which will be stationed in Keerom, Papua Province; Yonif 802/Wimane Mambe Jaya, which will be posted in Sarmi, Papua; Yonif 803/Nduka Adyatma Yuddha, which will be sent to Boven Digoel, South Papua; and Yonif 804/Dharma Bhakti Asasta Yudha, which will work in Merauke, South Papua.
Meanwhile, Yonif 805/Ksatria Satya Waninggap will be based in Sorong, Southwest Papua.
Based on data obtained by ANTARA, each infantry battalion consists of 691 personnel drawn from different regional military commands (Kodam) across the country.
Kodam I/Bukit Barisan has dispatched 150 soldiers, Kodam II/Sriwijaya 150 soldiers, Kodam III/Siliwangi 450 personnel, Kodam IV/Diponegoro 400 officers, Kodam V/Brawijaya 230 personnel, and Kodam VI/Mulawarman has fielded 25 officers for the battalions.
Furthermore, Kodam IX/Udayana has contributed 306 soldiers, Kodam XII/Tanjungpura 43 officers, Kodam XIII/Merdeka 157 personnel, Kodam XIV/Hasanuddin 225 soldiers, Kodam XVI/Pattimura 294 officers, Kodam XVII/Cenderawasih 100 soldiers, and Kodam XVIII/Kasuari has sent 20 personnel.
Meanwhile, the Jaya Kodam of Jakarta and Iskandar Muda Kodam of Aceh have contributed 350 and 100 soldiers, respectively, to the special battalions.
2) Indonesian Military Establishes Five New Battalions for Papua Security
Bella Evanglista Mikaputri
October 3, 2024 | 3:05 am
Jakarta. The Indonesian Military has established five new infantry battalions to be deployed in conflict-prone areas of Papua, Armed Forces Commander General Agus Subiyanto announced on WednesdayThe primary mission of these battalions is to maintain security and support the government’s development efforts in the eastern region of Indonesia.“We have inaugurated five battalions to be stationed in vulnerable areas of Papua. Their goal is to assist the government in accelerating development and improving the prosperity of the Papuan people,” Agus said during a press briefing in Jakarta.These ground forces will help secure major government projects, such as the food security program covering over 1,000 hectares of crops in Merauke Regency, and key road construction projects across Papua.
The newly established units are:
Ksatria Yuddha Kentsuwri 801st Infantry Battalion for Keerom Regency,
Wimane Mambe Jaya 802nd Infantry Battalion for Sarmi Regency,
Nduka Adyatma Yuddha 803rd Infantry Battalion for Boven Digoel Regency,
Dharma Bhakti Asasta Yudha 804th Infantry Battalion for Merauke Regency, and
Ksatria Satya Waninggap 805th Infantry Battalion for Sorong Regency.
In recent years, Papua has seen an escalation in insurgent activity, with sporadic attacks on both civilian and military targets. The Free Papua Movement (OPM) has been responsible for abductions and killings, particularly targeting construction workers involved in key infrastructure projects aimed at improving connectivity in the region.
A notable incident involved the abduction of New Zealand pilot Philip Mark Mehrtens, who was held hostage by an OPM rebel group for nearly 20 months before being released last month.
3) A conservation treasure is threatened by Indonesian plans for food security
Military-led project also risks stirring resentment in the easternmost Papua region, researchers say.
Stephen Wright
for RFA 2024.10.02 Bangkok
Indonesia’s military is taking a leading role in plans to convert more than 2 million hectares of wetlands and savannah into rice farms and sugarcane plantations in a part of conflict-prone Papua that conservationists say is an environmental treasure.
The military’s involvement has added to perceptions that it is increasingly intruding into civilian areas in Indonesia and prompted a warning that it would bring bloodshed to Merauke, a regency in South Papua province slated to become a giant food estate.
It’s an area of easternmost Indonesia that has largely avoided violence during the decades-long armed conflict between Indonesia and indigenous Papuans seeking their own state.
The plans are part of the government’s ambitions for the nation of 270 million people to achieve food and energy self-sufficiency. They highlight the tension globally between the push for economic development in lower-income countries and protection of the diminishing number of pristine ecosystems.
Taken together, the sugarcane and rice projects for Merauke represent at least a fifth of a 10,000-square-kilometer (38,600-square-mile) lowland known as the TransFly, which spans Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Its name comes from the Fly River – a squiggle on the otherwise straight line on the map that marks the border of the two countries on New Guinea island.
The great expanse of wetlands, grasslands and pockets of tropical rainforest in the south of the island is “globally outstanding,” said Eric Wikramanayake, a conservation biologist who wrote about its significance for a book on conservation regions in Asia.
Researchers say it is home to half of the bird species found in New Guinea including about 80 that exist nowhere else and other endemic animals such as the pig-nosed turtle and cat-like carnivorous marsupials.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has called it a “global treasure” and a proposed World Heritage listing says no other place in the region compares to it, including the famous Kakadu national park in northern Australia.
“If you were to convert a lot of the TransFly into agriculture then it’s going to change the conservation assessment, it will make it much more threatened,” Wikramanayake said.
“There is going to be some impact and those impacts, it’s like opening the can of worms” in paving the way for further development, he said.
For Ahmad Rizal Ramdhani, the major-general who heads Indonesia’s National Food Security Taskforce, the area targeted for development is swamps that should be converted to agriculture to realize their “extraordinary” fertile potential.
He told a 40-minute-long podcast with state broadcaster Radio Indonesia in August that the 1 million-hectare rice component of the agricultural plans was being funded by the government and overseen by the military and agriculture ministry. The sugar cane plantations and a related bioethanol industry are funded by private investors, he said.
Wearing an indigenous Papuan headdress, Ramdhani said he envisioned that Papuans would ask “Mr. TNI” – the initials of the name for the Indonesian military – for help with cultivating their customary lands.
Sacred and conservation areas would be protected and the land would remain in the ownership of indigenous Papuans, he said.
“To the people of Papua, especially those in Merauke, there is no need to worry and doubt, there is no need to be afraid,” Ramdhani said.
In seemingly contradictory remarks, Ramdhani said the conversion to rice paddy needed to be carried out in three years to ensure food security, but rice would also be exported – to Pacific island countries and Australia because it’s too expensive to send it to Java, Indonesia’s most populated island.
Analysis of land-use maps shows areas designated for rice overlap with conservation areas, indigenous sacred places and ancestral trails and hunting grounds, said Franky Samperante, director of Indonesian civil society organization Pusaka.
Pusaka said in a report in September that more than 200 excavators had begun clearing wetlands, customary forests and other lands belonging to the Malind Makleuw indigenous people in Ilwayab, Merauke.
Members of the community protested against the rice project during a Sept. 24 reception for Indonesian officials, video shows.
Women with faces caked in white mud to symbolize grief wore cardboard signs around their necks that said “We reject the Jhonlin Group company” – an Indonesian conglomerate that is reportedly a key part of the agricultural projects.
Earlier government and military-led attempts to develop agriculture in Merauke, including in the last decade, led to land grabs and other problems.
‘Risk of resentment’
The military’s leadership of the rice program adds to perceptions it is increasingly intruding into civilian areas, according to three Indonesian security researchers.
The large agricultural projects could fuel pro-independence sentiment and grievances over environmental destruction, said military analyst Raden Mokhamad Luthfi at Al Azhar University Indonesia.
“There’s a real risk that the project could spark new resentment from OPM [Organisasi Papua Merdeka-Free Papua Movement], who may view it as further evidence of inequality, injustice, and environmental harm faced by Papuans,” he told BenarNews.
Justification for the military’s role in the Merauke project, Luthfi said, is based on the concept of food security outlined in Indonesia’s 2015 defense white paper.
Officers at the army staff college perceived a security threat from possible food shortages in the future caused by climate change and population growth, he said. However, the white paper also said food security efforts should be led by civilian ministries.
Hipolitus Wangge, a researcher at Australian National University, said the military had silenced discontent among Papuans during a failed program last decade to make Merauke into a major center of food production.
“We should expect more discontent, even bloodshed in Merauke in the next five years,” he told Radio Free Asia.
The Indonesian government’s development plans for the region and armed conflict were likely behind the demise of a once ambitious plan to protect the TransFly environment.
WWF’s Indonesia and Papua New Guinea chapters made a concerted attempt in the early-to-mid 2000s to develop a conservation plan and expand protected areas. Within a few years, the effort had foundered.
At the time, the WWF waxed lyrical about the environmental significance of the TransFly but the conservation group’s Indonesian chapter now says it “recognizes the importance of national strategic projects, such as the Food Estate initiative in Merauke, in addressing Indonesia’s food security challenges.”
The conservation program ended in 2016 because of insecurity in Papua and lack of resources, WWF Indonesia spokeswoman Diah Sulistiowati told Radio Free Asia (RFA), a news service affiliated with BenarNews.
“We understand that the government prioritizes this [agricultural] development to meet the growing demand for food and to support national food security goals,” she said.
WWF Indonesia is helping to ensure development of the TransFly region respects “rich ecological and cultural values,” Sulistiowati said, through its past recommendations for protection of high conservation value forests, cultural heritage sites and areas crucial to indigenous communities.
A lesser heralded aspect of the TransFly’s importance is that it’s one of a diminishing number of wetland stopovers for migratory birds that make epic journeys along a millenia-old Asian “flyway” stretching from Alaska to New Zealand.
“Whatever few wetlands and bird habitats that are used by these birds should be conserved,” said Wikramanayake, the conservation biologist. “There could be some sort of tipping point that causes the flyway to collapse.”
On 24 September 2024, the Indonesian Supreme Court delivered a significant victory for civil liberties by upholding the acquittal of human rights activists Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti (see top image, source: FM). The case, which stemmed from allegations of defamation against Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, had drawn widespread attention due to its implications for freedom of expression and the right to criticize public officials. The Supreme Court’s decision to reject the prosecutor’s appeal affirms the lower court’s ruling that Azhar and Maulidiyanti did not commit any criminal acts as charged under various articles of Indonesian law, including the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law.
This landmark decision is being hailed as a crucial step in protecting civil liberties and environmental activists in Indonesia. Legal experts argue that the ruling should serve as a precedent for future cases involving the criminalization of activists and human rights defenders. The concept of Anti-Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) has been emphasized, highlighting the importance of safeguarding individuals who speak out on matters of public interest. The Supreme Court’s decision not only supports Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti’s cause of demanding accountability but also sends a strong message about the right of citizens to critique public officials without fear of legal repercussions in Indonesia.
